Keselowski grabs his first NASCAR Cup Series win in three years

A week after Kyle Larson won the closest-ever NASCAR race at Kansas Speedway, the NASCAR circus rolled into South Carolina, and the Darlington Raceway, for the Goodyear 400.

Coming into this race Tyler Reddick grabbed pole position, and Larson held the Championship lead.

After 249 laps it was Brad Keselowski who won the Goodyear 400 and dominated Darlington. This was Keselowski’s first win of the season and first win in 110 races. This was also Ford’s first race win of the 2024 season.

Reddick dominated the start of the race until the first pit stop when the #45 lost the lead of the race for the first time. With Reddick’s first pitstop of the race being one second slower than it should have been, it was Ty Gibbs who grabbed the lead and led his first ever laps at Darlington.

Gibbs ended up struggling with the lapped car traffic and this allowed Kyle Larson to get the jump on the youngster and grab the lead. At the end of Stage One, it was Larson who won the stage, but Reddick regained the lead after the end of stage pit stop.

The first caution of the race not for a stage end came on lap 121 as John Hunter Nemechek blew his right front tyre on the front straight. From the restart of the first caution, another caution came out after William Byron, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Larson and Bubba Wallace came together.

The third racing caution of the race came out as Zane Smith spun from 33rd place in the race only 23 laps before the end of the second stage.

For the start of the third and final stage, Reddick got the lead once again straight after winning the second stage moments before.

The final caution of the race came late on in the race as seventh place Larson spun around after a rear left blowout. Keselowski had been leading the race, but this caution is not at all what he would have wanted.

Drama struck with 10 laps to go as Chris Buescher and Reddick crashed into one another and they both had flats, but the race stayed green. Keselowski grabbed the lead with Gibbs now in second place.

Behind Keselowski was Gibbs and Josh Berry in second and third place. Then further back Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe finished in fourth and fifth place.

Rounding out the top ten this weekend were William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Justin Haley and Michael McDowell.

After 90 laps it was Larson who took victory in the opening stage of the race after grabbing the lead of the race just before the end of the stage to get 10 extra points.

Stage two saw a completely different story as Reddick took victory in the penultimate stage of the race gaining 10 extra Championship points. This stage was dominated by cautions and safety car periods slowing the pace of the race.